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Date:         Sun, 13 Mar 2005 23:01:05 -0800
Reply-To:     Robert Keezer <warmerwagen@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
Comments:     DomainKeys? See http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys
From:         Robert Keezer <warmerwagen@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Life after speedometer, why do they break?
Comments: To: Sam Walters <sam.cooks@VERIZON.NET>
In-Reply-To:  6667
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Sam, I think the trip meter warning to reset only when stopped is just another bourbon legend passed along because it sounds good.

Just like the one where passengers warn you not to have too many keys on the keychain or it will break the switch.

I have enough keys to double as a small dingy anchor and in tens years the switch hasn't broke yet.

And I hope it will soon because i'm tired of waiting for it to. It was supposed to break at least 8 years ago. If you disassemble the igniton unit you will find the actually switch is a plastic piece that fits in the bottom of the housing, away from the keys. The key only turns a metal tab that's inserted into the end of the switch .

If anything, the weight of the keys might wear out the brass keys tumbler, but that hasn't happened yet either. In any case, it isn't a cause of switch failure, wear and overheating is.

Likewise, If you look at a speedo dissassembled, you see that when you push down the reset button, a row of four gears on one shaft is pulled back and disengages with the driving gear. You can spin the little gears freely while the button is down.

The button breaks from age or being pushed too hard, as the gears are disengaged . As long as the button is pushed down and the Vanagon rolling, the trip meter will show four zeros -it won't begin to tabulate until you let go of the button. This means while pushed in, the driving gear is disengaged. Since gears are just disengaging, what kind of resistance force is built up to break the button?

It doesn't add up.

I have a speedometer and a drill and I have tested this over and over- no sign of stress building up to break the button. The button will always depress the same amount, whether the car is rolling or not.

It is not somehow interupted halfway and then *snap*. If the button snaps as the result of pushing it while rolling, then should'nt the gear also break or strip?

I have also been resetting the trip meter while driving, about ten years.

Any other old Vanagon tales like this?

Robert

1982 Westfalia

--- Sam Walters <sam.cooks@VERIZON.NET> wrote: > Chris and other list members, > > I drove my 84 Vanagon as my daily driver for almost > 20 years and pushed > the reset button while moving after about 85% of my > refills. It never > broke. That van has gone to the crusher. In my > other vans I do it less > because conventional list wisdom says I am going to > break it if I do, > but I still do it while moving sometimes, although I > usually do it with > the clutch in and coasting for some reason. I just > usually forget to > push the reset while in the station and remember > after I am moving and I > don't want to get out of traffic to stop and reset > it. > > How do we really know that this resetting while > moving breaks tripmeters > and that it is not just that some of them break > because they are old and > we are assuming that it is because they were reset > while moving that > caused the breakage. I don't ever remember seeing > this explained, but > just seeing the assertion that they will break if > you do this. But > maybe it has been explained. > > If someone has explained this in the past, just > point me to the post by > telling me about when you wrote and the user name > you had at the time. > I'll look it up. > > In the meantime, I'll try to be good and reset my > tripmeter in the gas > station just to be safe - but inquiring minds want > to know, do I really > have to do this? :<) > > Sam > > -- > Sam Walters > Baltimore, MD > > 89 Syncro GL > 85 Westy Weekender > > All incoming and outgoing email scanned by > automatically updated copy of Norton AntiVirus. >

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